Death by Cinnamon

This summer we had a particularly tough time with ants in our house. It’s like they have a high-tech monitoring system set up that allows them 24/7 access to know when and where we drop a morsel of food.

This morning I waltzed into my kitchen promptly at 6am, ready to take on the world. When I turned on the light, it was like a hundred wacked out kids at a rave suddenly had a flashlight shining in their faces… and they all scurried in any which way they could, screaming, “The light, the light! Please turn off the light!”

Anyway, those ants picked the wrong morning to be partying all over my counter! I had heard that certain spices can “render them useless” (is there any good use for an ant?). So I whipped out my jar of cinnamon and sprinkled a nice long line across the counter. Then I stood there and waited.

One of the girls came down and asked what the heck I was doing, staring at a line of cinnamon on the counter. I told her, “shhh! I’m on reconnaissance!”

Eventually a scout made his way to my line of defense and low and behold if he didn’t start jumping all over the place after coming into contact with that spice. It reminded me of the time one of the kids stepped (barefoot) in dog poo and was hee-hawing all over the yard screaming, “get it off, get it OFF!” Yeah – same thing.

I stood there and watched. It was the slowest, most painful ant death I’ve ever seen. He kept shaking and rolling for almost 10 minutes. Finally he flipped over on his back and shook his legs a bit more before taking his last breath.

So, is cinnamon like a neuro-toxin for ants or something? I found some lady on e-how who says that any spice in a large enough dose can be a poison. Hmmm… All I know is that the 6 o’clock hour was huge at my house this morning. What does that mean for the rest of the day?